Shout out to the BOM Prophets

Well well well, here I am making my first post on our churchy church blog. It's about time, I do say. This is going to be quick but at least it's happening.

Sometimes I am grumpy and stubborn, and I don't feel like reading my scriptures. Which is really silly, because reading the Book of Mormon makes me HAPPY! There is amazingly no better medicine to a crappy day than picking up that little book and reading a couple of pages. Tonight at the temple I was reading about King Benjamin. That man said many wise and happy words. I was just thinking about how amazing it is that the words of a man who lived before the time of Christ could be preserved for me to read in 2012. I don't think that was an accident on Heavenly Father's part. I'm not sure if King Benjamin or any of the other Book of Mormon prophets knew what kind of an impact their words would have on so many people hundreds of years later, but I'm grateful for how diligent they were in recording the words of God. I take the Book of Mormon for granted sometimes, not really considering what had to happen in order for it to be in my life. But I bet it took a lot of work to put together! So shout out to you guys, you Book of Mormon prophets! You have made all the difference!

Day 4 of Temple Challenge

So sometimes Cassie comes up with awesome ideas like going to the Temple every day for the rest of the semester! Day 4 and we are still going strong! So here are some things I have learned after 4 days of the Temple!

1. The Temple makes me happy
2. Only the Temple can wake you up at 5:30 in the morning and make you leave happy and awake
3. Satan doesn't like it when we attend everyday and as Joseph Smith said, "It seems as thought the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy?" Satan doesn't like it when we do the Lord's work and when we do it often, he wants to stop us at all costs.
4. There is no place else like it
5. It is the House of the Lord
6. Temple workers are awesome and funny
7. In Temple prep we talked about all the people you do work for, how those who accept the gospel and have been waiting for someone to do their work will be so grateful to you, how those people will look out for you and will be your "guardian angels" so to speak. I know that to be true. All the people we have done baptisms for are constantly around us and helping us in our lives and supporting us in all that we do.

Bop It - Live It - Learn From It - Challenge It - It's Life

This one time Chaia asked me to relate Bop It to the Gospel... this is what came of it....

    Bop It is like life, the challenges we face our different for each of us; 

In Bop It we may struggle with Spin It, 

others may struggle with Twist it, 

and some may even struggle with both. 

 We all make mistakes, 

sometimes we make mistakes early on and learn from our mistakes, 

sometimes we make bigger mistakes later on in life 

and we have more work to do to get back to where we were;

 however, we can always start over, 

we can always take that step back after we mess up and begin again. 

No matter how many times we mess up we can always try again.

That's not all though. Sometimes we think, oh I'm too good, I can get a hundred points I don't need to do anything else because I've mastered this. 

That is not the case; we can always add something more to challenge ourselves and make us better. 

In Bop It we add sounds or colors,

 in life we can study the scriptures for longer or really truly study them. 

There are countless ways we can challenge ourselves and improve ourselves.

So learn from Bop-It. Improve yourself! Learn from your mistakes and challenge yourself to become a better person!!

Coincidence?

There are days where I am a stubborn grump. (Hard to believe right? Well believe it,  I could give you specific examples but I won't.) Well today is one of those days, and yesterday, and the day before! So I asked myself (read in British accent), "What the heck is wrong with you??" And then I realized, I have not read my scriptures nor prayed since I have been home. Coincidence with my grumpy attitude? I think not! 

It is amazing to me how the gospel can make that much of a difference in my life. One day without scriptures and I already have a bad attitude, two days and it gets worse, three days and I'm the worst daughter ever.

So I decided to read my scriptures; I opened randomly to D&C 30. Read the first 3 verses.... ha ha coincidence? I don't think there are any coincidences in life. 

The gospel is SO amazing. It is amazing how the Spirit can influence my life so greatly; without it I would be a miserable grump who no one would want to be around; I can't even stand myself. Sometimes I get caught up thinking about only me when I need to open up and remember everyone around me. Everyday I pass tons of people, some of them I know, some of them are strangers; yet each and everyone of those people are going through something different. Each person may need someone to uplift them and how can I be that person if I'm too caught up in myself? If I focus on the Lord and others, the Lord will bless me, but the more I focus on myself the worse it's going to get. 

This gospel is so great! I need to always remember it and remember the days when my life is filled with the spirit and the churchy things because those days are always the greatest; even if they seem long and slow, by the end of the day I am so filled and so happy.

Families

Ah home.... first things first, my Mom must download me with all the new family gossip. My family can be a bit crazy at times, but I have realized that I would be nowhere without them. My Dad's family has shown me exactly what not to do. They have shown me why I want the gospel in my life and how much it affects life and families. I think deep down they know it's important but they have chosen different lifestyles. I can only hope that I can be an example for them and my cousins; I hope that I can show them how much the gospel can bless them and how amazing it truly is. For my Mom's family. They have shown me that love lasts through the good and the bad times. They have made me realize how I need to be there for others, to support them and love them no matter what decisions they have made. My grandparents who have served missions and shown me how great and hard missions are; yet how important they are. My aunt and her family who got sealed in the Temple. Families are forever. My parents who have always encouraged me to pray and receive answers for myself, who taught me the importance of serving others, fulfilling all types of callings, and loving everyone. My sister who has always been the perfect example to me. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't learned from their examples and sometimes from their mistakes.

Love them anyway.

  My whole entire family is gone and I even did homework so to occupy my time I'm blogging. I thought that I would help Sam and post a churchy thought. Recently I have been thinking about some things. Have you ever been hurt by someone close to you? It might not even have been a big deal, but it killed you inside because you thought they would be the last person to do something like that to you? I think that this is how our Savior feels this way all the time. He made us, He loves us, He died for us, yet we are constantly letting him down and hurting Him in a way that He would never do. No matter what we do to Him He is still there. His arms are open wide and He offers us nothing, but love and mercy. Shouldn't we do the same? No matter what someone may do to you love them anyway. I'm not saying you have to continue to let them break you, but you should love them. You can remove yourself from a hurtful situation without being bitter and letting it ruin everything. Move on and get over it, but if that person ever needs anything or sincerely apologizes and is working on changing love them. Let them feel that you love them and your life might just be a little bit better.

I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go

Sometimes I'm the only person who writes on here... but I don't even care!!! Whenever I tell someone that my plans are to now go on a mission the FIRST question always is. Where do you want to go? Honestly... I have no idea!!! Everyone then says, "Oh come on, everyone as at least one place they would love to go." Again.... there are so many fantastic places in this world that I can't even begin to pick one. D&C 39: 14 says, " Behold, verily, verily I say unto thee, thou art not called to go into the eastern countries, but thou art called to go into Ohio." Everyone is called somewhere different for a different reason. Some go near and some go far. D&C 39: 16 then says, "Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, that the people in Ohio call upon me in much faith, thinking I will stay my hand in judgment upon the nations, but I cannot deny my word."  Somewhere out there people are waiting for missionaries, and maybe I am that missionary who can finally reach out to them. The Lord will send me exactly where he needs me to be and I will go exactly where he needs me to go. I will try my best to just sing this song no matter where I am called and remember that there may be one person there who needs me! http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=1&searchseqstart=270&searchsubseqstart=%20&searchseqend=270&searchsubseqend=ZZZ